Terrifying Muslims
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CONCLUSION Racial Feelings in the Post–9/11 World In the opening scene of the ﬁlm Man Push Cart (2005), written and directed by Ramin Bahrani, a pushcart vendor named Ahmad (played by Ahmad Razvi) starts his workday. The ﬁrst seven minutes of the ﬁlm have minimal dialogue but are full of activity, with the camera focused on Ahmad conducting the daily rituals of the immigrant service class. In the early-morning hours, he arrives at a busy warehouse to ﬁnd his pushcart. After loading the cart with goods to sell throughout the day, he drags it through the yellow cab–ﬁlled streets of Manhat- tan, a scene depicted several times in the ﬁlm, making his way to Midtown to sell co√ee, donuts, and bagels. With much e√ort, the breathless Ahmad slowly pushes his cart to a stop at a red light. From a van passing by, he hears an older desi singing a beautiful couplet from a Mohammad Raﬁ tune: ‘‘Mujhe dard-e-dil ka pata na tha, mujhe aap kis liye mil gaye (I didn’t know of this pain of the heart, for what reason did I ﬁnd you?).’’ The desi asks Ahmad if he is ok. He says yes, and they both move on. Ahmad exempliﬁes the downward mobility of the immigrant working class. He was once a rock star in Pakistan but now toils as a pushcart vendor to pay his debts. He hustles to make money; after he turns in his pushcart, he takes to the streets of New York to sell pirated pornographic dvds to working class men of color. Not only does he su√er from the economic obligations of migration; he also has to prove himself within his familial and social network. He is a single father who must earn enough money to reclaim his son from his in-laws, who refuse to give the child up until Ahmad earns enough money to support him. As the pressure to make money rises, Ahmad’s emotions begin to take a toll. In an act of blind compassion, he takes in an abandoned kitten, which becomes a symbol of his immigrant condition and his slowly unraveling social bonds. He carefully feeds the sick kitten milk and wipes away its vomit; in the end, though, Ahmad must dig a grave for the newborn. Each day seems to bring new failure; like Sisyphus, he must start every morning by rolling out his pushcart and earn